(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 30 - Everyone knew that Prince's vault was full of unreleased music, just as everyone knew that the conflict between his creative bulimia and the continuing war with industry resulted in behaviors that were difficult to understand. Listening to "Welcome 2 America", just published, now six years after his untimely death, one cannot ask oneself what prompted Prince not to publish it, as he did with the legendary "Camille" or with "Roadhouse Garden", a record reunion of the Revolution.
But in 2010, the year of his recording, his recording career was certainly not up to his genius, if you think that some of his albums were given away at concerts or attached to newspapers. His fame as an extraordinary performer was instead returned to its peak thanks to the SuperBall Half Time Show or the legendary 21 nights at the O2 Arena in London.
"Welcome 2 America" is the best album of the last twenty years of Prince's career, a disc with lyrics full of commitment reminiscent of the times of "Sign O 'The Times" and a musical richness that certainly does not belong to the other recordings of the period. Soul, funk and rock are the coordinates on which "Welcome 2 America" moves with tributes to the high priest of soul funk committed Curtis Mayfield in "Born 2 Die", ballad in 6/8 with the divine falsetto as "When She Comes", the engaging and fascinating "One Day We All Be Free", the hypnotic funk built on a bass riff from the title track which, with its jazzy idiosyncrasies and overlapping vocals, sounds like a grandchild of "Sign O 'The Times".
His legendary hostility towards industry is entrusted to "Running Game (Son of a Slave Master)", environmentalism is told in the sophisticated musical lines of "1000 Light YearsFrom Here", an essay of Prince's ability to reconcile complexity with catchy. (HANDLE).
